The story of our World Cup final ref

From butchery to Beckenbauer - few have a story to tell like Wolverhampton's own 1974 World Cup final referee Jack Taylor.

Football always played a big part in Taylor's life – he grew up above the family butcher's shop overlooking Molineux and played as a schoolboy for Wolverhampton Town.

By day he worked in the family shop, but by night – and Saturday afternoons – the butcher's block was swapped for a ball and whistle as he was transformed into one of the world's top referees.

Taylor enjoyed a 33-year career which encompassed over 1,000 games including 100 internationals in 60 countries.

Among them was the 1966 FA Cup final between Everton and Sheffield Wednesday and the 1971 European Cup final between Ajax and Panathinaikos.

But biggest of all was the 1974 World Cup final between West Germany and Holland, a clash which saw two of the world's all-time legendary players, Franz Beckenbauer and Johann Cruyff, go head to head.

It was not without incident as Taylor, now 80 and living in Himley, became the first referee in World Cup final history to give a penalty – or, as it proved, two of them before the Germans went on to win 2-1.

The first came within the first 80 seconds, after a foul on Cruyff before the Germans had even touched the ball.

You could be forgiven for thinking it would be every referee's worst nightmare.

But, reckons Taylor, it was nothing of the sort.

He said: "I never believe that referees at the top level should in any way be concerned about what happens, because you don't have time to stop and think.

"It's only when you give it you realise the magnitude of it all. It was clearcut in my opinion – not in everyone's, certainly the Germans, but I was happy with it. I was quite close.

"Beckenbauer, who's probably been as good a centre-back as there's been, walked past me, the ball was on the spot and he said 'Taylor, you're an Englishman.'

"I don't really think you could book him for that. There was nothing to suggest there was anything wrong with it, but it said an awful lot.

"I've seen him since and mentioned it to him and he shrugged his shoulders and said 'well, we won in the end didn't we?'"

Taylor gave a second spot kick in the same game, when Dutch defender Wim Jansen attempted to trip the German midfielder Bernd Holzenbein.

He said: "What really does annoy me is the suggestion that I gave it to even things up.

"It was a trip or an attempted trip and the laws of the game are that's a penalty."

The penalties awarded are not the only thing that made the final unique.

Normally known for their efficiency, the German tournament organisers suffered a rare moment of incompetence after forgetting to put out the corner flags.

Taylor recalled: "It was so funny it wasn't true. As a local referee I remember doing a game where a guy came up to me and said 'you've got to restart.'

"I asked why and he said 'there's no corner flags'. It's something I never forgot and so when you come to a World Cup final in Germany, such an efficient nation who never make mistakes, and there's no corner flags you can't believe it!

"There's millions of people watching and here I am, this one little guy, coming all the way around the pitch sticking corner flags in!

"Cruyff and Beckenbauer, these highly respected figures, start laughing and all of a sudden it has taken the tension away."

While top referees nowadays all turn professional, back in Taylor's day they needed a day job to make a living.

He said: "People talk a lot about the butcher's shop but you had to pay the mortgage.

"Things are more professional these days, but we weren't paid £66,000 a year or £700 a game or whatever it is. There was a basic fee.

"To say I was a butcher, that was fine, but I was hardly ever there. For my 60 countries in 30 years I went all over the world with a whistle.

"I didn't exactly leave the butcher's shop at 2 o'clock to go and referee Manchester United. I trained at the Wolves two or three times a week, at the time I was as fit as a fiddle and there's footage to prove it.

"It's hard to imagine that you go back to the days when you were asked to do the 1966 cup final, there were 80,000 people at Wembley and your fee was the gold medal and five guineas.

"The honour was in being there."

What has been a fascinating life has also brought two seasons refereeing in Brazil after closing the butchers, as well as coaching referees in South Africa and Saudi Arabia, while he was also a commercial director at Wolves for four years.

But one thing above all others will live long in the memory.

He said: "To referee a World Cup final was the ultimate. It's only every four years and it doesn't get any better."

Taylor does admit that even the world's top referees can get it wrong.

He said: "We all make mistakes. I can remember one time giving an offside only for it to turn out it was the programme seller!"

Moving to present day matters, Taylor, who was inducted to the FIFA Hall of Fame in 1999, cannot understand football's governing bodies' decision to test referees' knowledge of English swear words ahead of the tournament.

The move has come under particular scrutiny after Wayne Rooney was criticised for using vulgar language by an official in last week's warm-up game with the Platinum Stars.

He said: "I don't speak many languages but I'll tell you what's said in Dutch and German, as these are things you pick up.

"You can't have people sitting down talking about particular words. They've got better things to do.

"You could tell by Wayne's attitude what he was saying and doing. Do we really need to go into all that? I find it non-sensical."

But Taylor does believes Rooney needs to be careful at the tournament.

He said: "Does he need to watch himself? I suppose he does. I don't think anyone would ever be that surprised if something happened whereby he could be involved because he's that sort of player.

"I don't think you should take that away from him, because there are people that have this inner enthusiasm.

"If you took that away you'd lose some of the player."